Computerchannel.de: Squeak 3.0 tested

gafisher at sprynet.com gafisher at sprynet.com
Fri Sep 28 11:34:01 UTC 2001


Gary;

I was trained first as a teacher and have never run into any such
conspiracy.  While Charity (Public) Schools here in the US often
concentrate on vocational training rather than real education, that is
imposed more by parents than by "the establishment."  I admit things may
well be different elsewhere and I do not question your experience, but
even in the former Soviet Union I was given virtually a free hand in
both what and how I taught.

Having said all that, though, anything that makes Squeak easier to
master will encourage its acceptance.  Anyone who's seen a kid figure
out the obscurities of a new video game has seen how persistence can be
engendered through good interface design.  You'll never see a cryptic
error message or a sloppy exit in a successful video game.  Ideally,
everything a user can do should generate some recoverable result, which 
users can either undo or employ to develop a strategy for the next
action.

I'm rambling.  <g>

Gary


"Gary McGovern" <garywork at lineone.net> wrote:
> Please don't forget in all of this that people of all ages need help with
> education and not just children. I cannot say for other countries, but in
> England the working classes have a hard time getting a good education,
> mostly engineered slyly by the some of the upper and middle classes "to keep
> people in their places" or to keep competition out of the picture. There's
> many very clever people who are considered 'thick' because they don't have
> qualifications, but they don't have qualifications because they're education
> is sabotaged. I've even been publicly and verbally attacked by a teacher for
> daring to help a couple of students with some reading/literacy skills,
> though he wouldn't admit that was the reason.
> 
> In the old days, it was harder for the commoner but some of the modes of
> thought have been inherited.
> 
> I just hope that Squeak won't be targeted at just white upper and middle
> class kids and that all people will be targeted.
> 
> Yours sociologically,
> and with a family tree to support my words.
> Gary
> (and wearing the asbestos coat borrowed from Dan)




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